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The Tapeta surface will be used exclusively for winter racing, allowing Belmont to take over Aqueduct’s former winter schedule as NYRA consolidates its operations at Belmont and Saratoga.
The Belmont Stakes, which was staged at Saratoga during construction, will return to its traditional Long Island home in 2027. Belmont will also host the Breeders’ Cup World Championships in October 2027, bringing the event back to New York for the first time since 2005.
Belmont represents NYRA’s vision of a new operating model for racing in the state—a smaller, modernized venue capable of absorbing the entire downstate racing calendar. And with almost $14 million wagered on its opening card, it’s off to a flying start.
How to play Beach Party
The Queens-born mogul (real name: Curtis Jackson) has partnered with U.K.-based gaming manufacturer TCSJOHNHUXLEY to develop 50 Cent Headcrack, a licensed casino table game built on the mechanics of Cee-lo.
50 Cent previewed the project on Instagram on Sept. 17, 2026, framing the venture as the long-overdue legitimization of a game that always played by its own rules.
“For a hundred years this game lived on the corner,” he said in TCS/JOHNHUXLEY’s press release. “Now it’s got a dealer, a pay table and a seat at the table in a real casino. Same dice, new floor.”
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At that venue, the company’s president and interim chief financial officer, George Papanier, told officials that Bally’s will “deliver the event centre, 100 rooms of the hotel and the required food and beverage components” in early 2027, per the Chicago Sun-Times. That said, the company is reevaluating about 12% of the project’s other planned amenities in response to potential cannibalisation from video gaming terminals. The hotel plan calls for an eventual total of 500 rooms.
The city council legalised VGTs in its latest budget that took effect in January. Mayor Brandon Johnson opposed the move but was overruled by a council majority. Johnson and his colleagues have fought over the issue all year, which is still largely unresolved.
The mayor has not opined this summer, at least publicly, on if he believes Bally’s will open the casino in the first quarter of 2027. However, Johnson indicated in March that his administration is committed to projects such as Bally’s Chicago that foster economic development, while creating new jobs for numerous neighborhoods across the city.